This article investigates
the physical and mental landscapes of childhood after the Second World War in
two regions, northern Sweden and northern Finland. The material analyzed
consists of entries submitted to art and essay contests for schools in each
country. The aim of the Finnish contest was to increase aid during
reconstruction and to mentally unite the nation. The Swedish contest, organized
by a local heritage association, sought to foster regionalism and strengthen
people’s feeling of belonging to a nation-state.               

The
analysis draws on perspectives from visual culture studies, humanistic
geography, and an individual’s interpretation of place. The article illustrates
the intertextual connections between the contest submissions and material such
as school posters.

The
students’ paintings and drawings both reconstruct and comment on what was an
imposed cultural agenda. Their entries reflect the national mental landscape as
well as the local school aesthetics, ethics, and norms that prevailed at the
time.

This article is a modified version of Granö, Päivi, and
Anniina Koivurova. 2013. “Koululaiset kotiseudun representoijina toisen
maailmansodan jälkeen Suomen Länsi-Lapissa ja Ruotsin Tornionlaaksossa”